Exercise for Older Mouse Mothers Lowers Risk of Heart Defects in Babies (IMAGE)
Caption
In people, a baby's risk of congenital heart defects is associated with the age of the mother. Risk goes up with increasing age. Newborn mice predisposed to heart defects because of genetic mutations show the same age association. A new study demonstrates that older mouse mothers reduce this risk for their offspring to that of younger mouse mothers through exercise alone, according to researchers led by Patrick Y. Jay, MD, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study also suggests that the increased risk of congenital heart defects is tied to the age of the mother and not the age of her eggs. The study appears April 1 in Nature.
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Robert Boston
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